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Severance board hears petition and detailed discussion on funding a full-time school resource officer
Summary
A petitioner urged the board to seek a full-time SRO at Severance High School; town police and school officials outlined the SRO role, training and costs (roughly $60,000/year plus capital/equipment), and the CAB agreed to collect data and possibly advise council on funding and timing.
Residents and school representatives urged the Citizen Advisory Board to recommend that the town and school district pursue a full-time School Resource Officer (SRO) at Severance High School, citing safety, prevention and relationship-building benefits.
Steven, the petitioner, told the board the town should consider whether to fund a full-time SRO and noted an illustrative annual cost of about $60,000 to the town if cost-sharing arrangements change. Chief Ken Chandler and Craig Bergner (Director of Safety and Security for the schools) described the SRO program as threefold: law-enforcement response, public-safety education and informal counseling/mentoring. They said SROs attend specialized training beyond standard officer training and cited mental-health first-aid and national SRO conferences as examples.
Police staff explained current coverage: one SRO is shared across the district’s three schools in town and is generally dedicated to school duties except in extreme events. Staff offered benchmarking guidance — a frequently cited ratio is about one SRO per 1,100 students — and estimated Severance currently runs about one SRO per roughly 2,000 students with projected enrollment growth that could change staffing needs.
Board members asked for specific data to guide a decision: calls-for-service numbers, a breakdown of what activity in schools requires enforcement vs. counseling, updated enrollment projections from the district demographer and a clearer accounting of all costs beyond salary and benefits (police estimated a fully equipped vehicle at about $95,000 and uniform/equipment packages at $8,000–$10,000).
Several parents, teachers and school staff framed the issue as a trade-off between safety and scarce municipal funds. Board members repeatedly said they support the concept but must reconcile it with the town’s constrained budget (members referenced a roughly $600,000 budget cut already under consideration) and the need to negotiate cost-sharing with the district. The group discussed grant funding but noted grants are typically one-time solutions and long-term costs would need to be absorbed by a municipal or district budget.
Outcome and next steps: the CAB asked police and school staff to provide the requested data and agreed to prepare governance recommendations to send to the town council for budget consideration (possible calendar targets discussed around the school and town budget cycles, with the next meaningful decision point tied to the school district’s July budget cycle). No formal vote or commitment to fund a full-time SRO was taken at the meeting.
